Plants

Scientists at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center and Washington University are studying the long-term consequences of exposing plants to high levels of carbon dioxide.

Carbon dioxide levels in the Earth’s atmosphere are the highest they’ve been in 800,000 years, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Scientists expect levels of the greenhouse gas to continue to rise and worsen the effects of climate change over the next several decades if people do not reduce their use of fossil fuels and other natural resources.

This week, in the hallowed halls of the historic Old Courthouse in St. Louis, a local woodworker sued a shrub.

In an educational mock trial held Wednesday, a jury heard the case against invasive bush honeysuckle. The plant was first introduced to the U.S. from eastern Asia in the 1700s and has since spread to at least 31 states, including Missouri.

Outdoor activities like hiking and camping can help people appreciate nature and encourage public support for conservation, but a new study finds that such recreation can also be harmful to the environment.

In the most comprehensive survey of threats to rare plants conducted in 20 years, researchers from the Missouri Botanical Garden and the University of Missouri-St. Louis analyzed data on threats to nearly 3,000 rare plants in the United States. As scientists report in the journal Biological Conservation, they discovered that outdoor recreation was the most common threat to plants, above residential development and agriculture.

Poinsettias are sold by the millions every year, almost all of them between Thanksgiving and Christmas. As popular as these holiday flowers are, there still may be a few things about them that could surprise you. Here are five fun facts about poinsettias we wanted to share.

This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Aug. 27, 2012 - When Kathryn Lee Johnson, a Catholic, married David Earl Kennedy, a Methodist, in 1972, theirs was the first ecumenical wedding in Lincoln, Neb. It was the talk of the town. The wedding even drew “a little bit of press.”

It was generally believed at the time, Kathryn Kennedy said, that marriage outside of one’s faith was “fraught with peril.”

This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, July 24, 2012 - If, amid this summer’s sweltering heat and parching lack of rain, there was one ironic thought that might sum up the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center’s latest grant award, Dr. Tom Brutnell may have found it.

This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, May 18, 2012 - Visitors to Missouri Botanical Garden these days are greeted by an enormous yellow dragon lantern that stretches down the entrance to Ridgway Visitor Center. It is easy to deduce that this creature is part of the upcoming Lantern Festival to be launched Memorial Day weekend.Thoughtful and/or frequent visitors may remember that this year’s orchid show had a Chinese theme, and that the Brookings Interpretive Center features an interactive exhibit on Chinese culture. Why the emphasis on China?

The Missouri Botanical Garden has announced plans to help build an online database of the world’s plants.

Working with the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, and the New York Botanical Garden, the Missouri Botanical Garden will compile information on as many as 400,000 land plant species, with the goal of having all the data available online by 2020.

Monsanto today announced progress on nine of its research projects on genetically-engineered crops.

Speaking on a conference call with reporters, Monsanto's vice president of biotechnology, Steve Padgette, said several collaborations with the Germany-based BASF Plant Science will be moving forward in 2011.

This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Dec. 29, 2010 - Today the Missouri Botanical Garden and the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew announce the online publication of The Plant List, the world's first database of all land plant species. The Plant List includes all accepted botanical names and their synonyms, as well as a number of names whose status as accepted or synonym is unresolved in the current literature.

This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Nov. 5, 2009 - When we think of rare and endangered plants, many of us tend to assume they are all in tropical rain forests. Not so. Rare plants from our area -- and indeed all over the United States -- are in danger of disappearing forever.

Sometimes housing developments destroy a plot of plants that grow only on a rocky outcrop called a glade. The white-haired goldenrod grows only under cave-like overhangs in Kentucky and Tennessee. Rock-climbers and hikers tend to trample it. Climate change may already be having a profound effect on plant survival.

This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Aug. 12, 2009 - Plants can grow at surprising rates and for a very long time. Bamboo plants can grow as fast as three feet a day (or 1.5 inches per hour). At that rate, you could almost watch it grow. The oldest living plant is a Bristlecone Pine located in the White Mountains on the California-Nevada border called Methuselah, which has lived to a ripe old age of 4,767 years.

This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, May 1, 2009 - Gardeners in this area are all too aware that failing to water during our long, hot summers may turn colorful flower beds into studies in brown. And our vegetable gardens won’t give us much produce without adequate water.

On a global scale, growing enough food to support a projected population of 9 billion by 2050 (currently 6.8 billion) will seemingly require that much more water at a time when weather appears to be increasingly erratic.

This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, March 17, 2009 - The Missouri Botanical Garden celebrates its 150th anniversary in 2009 and is now a world center for botanical research. Its programs operate in 37 countries; its herbarium collection contains more than 6 million specimens, and its 150 scientific staff members not only carry out research on a variety of topics, but offer their expertise to institutions ranging from the U.S. National Cancer Institute to parks and conservation areas worldwide.